The Writers Guild of America called a strike one year ago today, declaring that the streaming boom had created an existential crisis for writers.
The WGA got most of what it wanted from the strike, though it took almost five months for the studios and streamers to come around. But as the boom has gone bust, writers now face a different kind of crisis.
For most, it’s harder to find work.
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“There’s less things being made,'” said Justin Halpern, a WGA board member and co-showrunner of ABC’s “Abbott Elementary.” “If you have been able to secure employment as a writer during this time of contraction, you are making a living wage. But the problem is, there’s not a lot being made right now.”
The contraction was already underway before the WGA went on strike, followed by SAG-AFTRA two months later. Production has resumed but remains below pre-strike levels, according to data released last month by FilmLA.
As a result, it may be a while before the true impact of the strike is fully realized. Broadly speaking, the WGA went to the picket lines for two things: higher wages, especially for writers at the lower rungs of the careeer ladder, and more fundamental structural changes that address how TV is produced and how writers are compensated.
Writers who are working are already seeing the increase in their paychecks.
Before the strike, entry level writers in TV did not receive “script fees” — the bonus for each script produced. The new contract changed that. Staff writers — who typically work for weekly scale, far below their veteran coworkers — now get the same $29,823 for a 30-minute episode, or $43,862 for a 60-minute episode, that more experienced writers get.
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“That’s exciting,” said Sierra Ornelas, co-creator of the Peacock comedy series “Rutherford Falls.” “It was always hard to watch staff writers, who worked the hardest of anyone, not get paid for their episodes.”
The contract also established a higher minimum weekly pay tier for writers at the co-producer level and above. Those minimums jumped 15%, to $8,524 per week, or 9.5% above the rate for story editors and executive story editors.
Some other impacts are already being felt, such as a provision granting full pension and health contributions to each member of a writing team, and a guaranteed rewrite for film writers who make less than double the guild minimum.
The structural provisions, meanwhile, may take time to play out.
“It’s too soon,” said John Rogers, another WGA board member. “I don’t think we’ve had the time to see the larger impacts.”
For the first time, the WGA contract enshrines the concept of a TV “writers room,” led by a showrunner, with a guaranteed minimum staffing level. The contract also requires that at least two writers be hired through the duration of production, to help writers train to become showrunners.
The goal was to preserve some form of the traditional broadcast production model in the new streaming era.
The contract also forbids the harshest aspects of “mini rooms” — in which a showrunner would hire a few writers for a few weeks to develop a season of a show. Under the new terms, any “development rooms” must last for at least 10 weeks and writers must be paid 25% above their standard minimums.
In the past, studios have responded to guild rules with workarounds to avoid paying more overall. In this instance, it’s possible that showrunners could do more development work on their own, rather than hire a full development room.
These provisions took effect in November and December of last year. The WGA has said does not yet know how the new rules are working out in practice.
It’s also too soon to evaluate a new residual for writers on the most-watched shows on streaming platforms. The WGA sought a model whereby the more a show was watched, the more writers would be paid. They ended up with a binary system — of hits and not-hits — where the hit shows that reach pre-determined viewership benchmarks will receive a one-time 50% residual bonus.
It remains to be seen how many shows will be classified as hits. Regardless, it’s almost certain that the WGA will return in 2026 with a proposal for a more generous formula, possibly with multiple tiers of success rather than the binary model.
When the strike was called, Chris Keyser, co-chair of the WGA negotiating committee and a past president of the WGA West, said it would not be enough simply to raise minimum rates. In order for the strike to succeed, there would have to be a guarantee that writers would be hired.
“A writer who isn’t hired gets no minimums,” he argued.
For now, that half of the equation remains uncertain.
Looking back:
Writer’s Strike: Inside the Room as Talks Collapsed, May 3, 2023
‘We Caused Them Pain’: The Inside Story of How the WGA and AMPTP Negotiated a ‘Great Deal’ to End the Writers Strike, Sept. 27, 2023
